A second-grade teacher asks TJ Walker how to handle disruptive students. Walker says the problem isn't the kids, it's the presentation. He recommends recording yourself teaching, getting peer feedback, and studying age-specific engagement techniques instead of relying on punishment.
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Public speaking question of the day comes from one of my online students. TJ I'm a second grade teacher. How do I handle giving lectures while my students are doing rude things such as sleeping, walking up to drink water without asking first, or dropping pencil boxes on purpose? I don't have children, so these are not issues that I have had to handle in my personal life. Is it best to just laugh it off or do I need to give serious consequences for them to learn? So first of all, I take my hat off to you for teaching second graders. I don't have the discipline to do that or the patience. It has to be a unique set of challenges. So I'm not the expert on speaking to second graders, but what I am an expert on is a process for improving any type of presentation. So for starters, I'd ask you to ask advice from your other fellow second grade teachers. Talk to people who are in the trenches every single day. Find out what they had to say next. You're not going to want to do this, but I would advise it. Invite your principal, your vice principal, other learning instructors to sit in your classroom while you're teaching and ask them for feedback. It might be painful short term, but long term it could make you a much better teacher and have a much greater impact on the lives of these young students. Next, I would go to YouTube, other online forums and look for advice specifically on how to teach second graders. I mean, it's a big world out there. There's a niche for everyone. I have to believe that there are people who care about your niche and who not only written about it but produced videos on on that subject. And then finally I'd ask you to video record yourself. Now I realize you may have privacy issues, you can't record your students faces, but I would ask you to record yourself so you can watch them later after you've had a little distance perspective on it. Do all those things and I think you'll be better at speaking. But also let's step back and realize it's not about you. It's not about you being uncomfortable or your feelings hurt because they were rude to you. These are little children. Now you may think they're little monsters, but they are children. Their minds are malleable, they are ready to learn. And you've got to figure out how can you captivate them, how can you connect with them? How can you make a difference? How can you get them to say something when they go home and their parents say what did you learn in school day? What are you going to have them say it's Ideally, it's not just oh, I was disciplined or spanked because I went to I guess you can't spank anymore. But I was disciplined because I went to the water cooler and I was thirsty and I forgot to ask. You don't want that to be the most memorable moment of their day. So follow up on those tips and I think you'll be improving in no time. I'm TJ Walker. I help people speak more effectively. If you'd like to improve your own speaking skills, please go to mediatrainingworldwide.com you can download a couple of our books at no charge, plus get information on our online training courses and in person workshops.
